Rust
by NonsensicalCheshire
Summary: Water and metal traditionally didn't go well. Though, Gajeel and Juvia weren't traditional people, so to say. / BroTP drabbles, likely mentions to Gruvia and Gajevy in later chapters.
1. Waterball Fight!

A/N: Gajeel and Juvia are a big BroTP of mine, so I decided to start a drabble series on them. After all, they're freakishly adorable, you know.

* * *

"C'mon, short-stuff, jump for it."

Gajeel waved the job request above the rain woman's pretty little head, waving it tauntingly and lowering it into her reach occasionally, then yanking it back up. Juvia herself was jumping in vain, arms flailing over her head to catch the request slip.

"Gajeel-kun! Gajeel-kun! Just give it to Juvia!" she murmured, straining her arms.

The Phantom Lord mage gave a sharp-toothed smile, laughed his signature laugh, and lowered it down into Juvia's reach, letting her catch it. "Okay, okay. So, what's it for?" The tall man leaned down over her shoulder to look at it.

"It's specially designed for a water mage such as Juvia. They're having problems with growing their crops, so they're hoping to get water artificially. All Juvia has to do is stay for a day or so. It's really easy money." Juvia folded up the paper and slipped it into the pocket of her dress.

"Oh?" Gajeel lifted a metal-studded eyebrow. "How's about I come with you then, just so I can get a little break from this dump."

"Gajeel, hoping to get it on with the rain woman?" a man cackled.

Juvia shied away and Gajeel bared his fangs. The offender backed down, threatened by the Kurogane's malice.

* * *

"I remember why I don't go out with you more," Gajeel growled, an open blue umbrella slumped on his shoulder.

"Because Juvia is too good for your presence?" she asked innocently, twirling her own pink umbrella.

"Hey!" he growled at her. At the same moment, rain that had been collecting on a building's roof sloshed down over his umbrella, successfully splashing him.

Juvia laughed all the way to their inn.

"What do we do?" he asked, laying down on the bed.

"Oh, well, anything. All Juvia has to do is stay in this town for a little bit. The rain will do all her work." Juvia blinked her navy blue eyes. "I knew you would find this boring. I'm sorry."

"Eh, it's cool. Better than sitting around in that dingy little bar all day, y'know." Gajeel crunched on a screw from a bag. Out of politeness, he almost offered one to Juvia, but quickly remembered that she did not eat metal. "You're the only one there worth bein' with anyways."

Juvia gaped at him, then blushed and looked down at her folded hands. A smile spread across her face, and she stood, gave her dress a quick smack to get off the dust, and grabbed her hat. "Juvia knows what to do with Gajeel-kun."

Groaning like a bothered teenager, the man followed his companion outside, putting up his umbrella. "What?"

"Has Gajeel-kun ever heard of a snowball fight?"

"Eh? That's a stupid question, of course." He scratched his chin. He'd never had one, though. Dragons weren't much good for snowball fights, so Metallicana had never quite offered to have one with his son.

"Okay, well, I've never had one. And because there's no snow, I thought we could have a waterball fight!"

Gajeel scowled deeper. "You can't do that, you can't mold water- oh, yeah, water person."

Juvia was making neat piles of water spheres, a childlike gleam in her eyes. "These will replace the snowballs, and-"

Gajeel threw one right in her face.

He tossed back his head and laughed, his whole body shaking. "I like this!"

"Oh?"

Juvia picked one up, grabbed him, lifted his shirt, and smashed one on his abs. Gajeel let out an unmanly shriek.

"Guess Gajeel-kun doesn't need that umbrella anymore!"

"That's it!"

People looked out of their windows to see two young people tossing balls of water at each other, or occasionally smashing them on the others body, and laughing all the while.

Gajeel smiled menacingly as he threw a waterball at the girl. It hit dead-on, and as he looked at her rare laughing face, all he could think was, "_Oh yeah. She's definitely the only one hanging out with_."


	2. Count on It

AN: Dumb, stupid, sentimental chapter two, because every drabble series needs some sentiment.

* * *

She was always the one.

When Gajeel came home from a job, the rain woman would be sitting on his couch, dinner cooked for him and a first-aid kit in her lap. She was always the one who encouraged him, or called him out. When he was headed down the wrong path, she was always the one who steered him away, took him by the hand and led him down another. It was because she didn't want him to go down the same path she had taken.

He was always the one.

Whenever Juvia wanted to go shopping, Kurogane was the one who took her, no matter how much he hated it. He was always the one who worried about her, who could tell what her rain said about her condition. He was always the one who she put her faith in, settling her hope on him like an anchor.

They understood each other like no one else in Phantom Lord could.

Juvia understood Gajeel's pain of being left alone. He understood her fear of being alone. They taught each other so many things, like how to swim, or how to work with her hands (Juvia never really took to carving, but that was okay, because Gajeel never quite took to swimming.)

However, Juvia didn't understand his need to hurt others. On so many jobs together, she would rest her hand on his arm, attempting to sooth his pumping adrenaline, trying to keep him from seriously wounding another. Once it got her hurt, an arm swinging down to knock her to the ground, coughing up blood.

Gajeel didn't go near her for a week, ashamed of himself, utterly ashamed.

She also didn't understand why he had to hurt those mages in Fairy Tail, the three he pinned up on a tree. Juvia had been tempted to scold him for it, but refrained out of fear. She didn't want him to get angry and leave her. He was all she had.

Gajeel didn't understand her desire to get rid of her rain. It was just a little water, and who needed the blue sky? It made her stronger, too, and the stronger the better. And why did she want to fall in love? He was all she needed.

To each other, they were always the one that each other relied on. The Rain Woman and Kurogane needed no one else.


	3. Sick Day

A/N: So, this contains references to my story, Black and Blue, but you don't have to read it. If you don't, though, you might get confused. Otherwise, who cares? Please enjoy!

* * *

The rain woman sniffed in misery. "Ugh. Gajeel-kun, thank you for staying with Juvia." Her voice was thick with the mucus stuck in her throat.

Gajeel would've laughed at her if she didn't look so pitiful. Her normally paper-white and smooth skin was gray and clammy, her eyes duller than usual. A pile of used tissues was piled in the wastebasket next to her bed, and the rumpled blankets on her bed were cocooned around her.

"Uhhh… No problem, Juvia." The Ace of Phantom put down a couple of things. "Here's some soup from Totomaru- gross, he's a terrible cook- and some mangoes I picked up from the mission I just got back from.

He'd come back from his job in a port town (where they'd had really fresh mangoes, Juvia's favorites, to his delight) to be told by a worried Totomaru and Sol that Juvia was sick and hadn't come out of her apartment for a day or so. Using the spare key she entrusted him with, he entered her apartment carrying Totomaru's soup and the bag of mangoes. He looked ridiculous laden down with the things, he was sure.

Gajeel now looked down at his best friend with pity. The rain woman glared up at him as she bit into one of the fruits, as if daring him to comment on her condition. He gestured at his chin. "Ya've got a little, er, just some… Never mind."

But Juvia got the hint and wiped away the sticky juice with the back of her hand. She sneezed, then started eating the mango again, miserable. "Juvia hasn't been sick since she left Gran's house…"

Gajeel sniffed the soup, recoiling at the smell. Someone had to teach that man how to cook. He screwed the lid back on and sat down heavily on a stool. "Pretty different when there's only one person to take care of you, instead of servants waiting on you hand and foot, eh?"

She put down the half-eaten fruit and blew her nose into a tissue. "Well, Juvia does know how to take care of herself. She only lived in the Lockser Estate for four years." Juvia blew again. "Mother was always on jobs, so she never had time to take care of Juvia…"

Gajeel looked at her. "That's true, I guess. Well, I'm going to go get you some decent food, now, so get some rest." He stood, making for the door to her room.

Juvia finished the last bite of mango and slumped down onto the bed. "Uugggnnhh."

"That's a yes, I take it."

* * *

A wild sneezing fit was what woke Juvia up. Stuffy headed, she pulled herself from underneath the pillows. Her pajama top was pretty much totally unbuttoned, so she fixed that and swung her legs out of bed. She needed orange juice or something. Maybe she'd force her way through Toto's soup. Not like taste was available to her all stuffed up, though.

Rubbing her eyes, Juvia exited the room. Bleary, she blinked. Her apartment was spotless. Her collection of umbrellas was neatly grouped by the door instead of toppled over. Her kitchen was clean and the smell of burning food wafted around.

There was a Gajeel Redfox standing in the middle of the kitchen, right by the small table.

He was wearing a white bandana over his hair to keep it held back, and a white apron over his jeans and black t-shirt. He had frozen in the middle of putting a plate of something brown and bubbly on the table.

He stared at her.

She stared at him.

A laugh escaped her and she bent over, clutching her stomach. "Y-you look so ridiculous!" she said, gasping for breath.

Gajeel unfroze and threw down the plate, splattering brown gunk on the table. "I-I tried to make you breakfast! Ah, shoot, I was hoping that you'd wake up later and I could've blamed this on Sol or Totomaru or some poor sap like that."

He continued to blush and stammer while ripping off the bandana and apron. Juvia had collapsed to her knees, laughing wildly. The thought of Gajeel trying to cook and clean for her was hilarious and sweet, but mostly hilarious. She paused laughing only for a moment to choke and cough out some mucus, then continued.

"H-hey, stop laughing at me! I am the Kurogane! I will not… tolerate… Ah, screw it."


End file.
